HPE Nimble Storage Reviews

The built-in performance profiles have made tweaking settings for different uses (SQL log files, SQL data files, VMware datastores, etc.) extremely simple. The built-in profiles are more than enough for most implementations, and if you need to create a custom performance profile, the process is simple and well documented. The analytics available via Infosight (The online Nimble support portal) are extremely well written and useful too. In particular, I find the analytics extremely useful when tracking down causes of latency that occasionally crop up and affect processing.

The Nimble SANs, as part of an overall move from standalone servers to a combined virtual infrastructure, have allowed my client to be much more responsive to their clients. The client is a SaaS provider that does large analysis/predictive modeling for the retail market. The previous hardware setup had database processes running for 14 hours or more, creating long turn around times for users. The new servers, running on the faster Nimble storage, allowed processing times of two hours or less to be achieved, allowing for faster results, as well as the ability to process more datasets concurrently, servicing more customers.

While I was not present for the sizing discussions, I believe there was some lack of discovery in selecting the model and features for my client. Even though the flash size on the array was doubled from Nimble's initial recommendation, the SAN still has latency issues during the largest dataset imports, due to CPU limitations on the SAN model that presales had recommended for this client. Certainly not the end of the world, and it can be fixed with an upgrade, but it was somewhat frustrating for my clients. I suspect estimations were used as to what the expected load would be, without a full understanding of the data processing being performed.

I originally installed one of these SANs for a customer just over three years ago. Since then, two additional SANs (same model, features and capacity, have since been added).

Deployment was great. The web configuration was extremely easy (and has gotten easier with every major release). Network configuration, utilizing Juniper QFX 5100 10gb switches, was simple too. All Nimble required was jumbo frames and enough network ports of each speed, 1gb and 10gb, for data and management.

The initial SAN that I installed has been extremely stable. The second of the three SANs has had occasional issues with a controller crashing, eventually leading to replacement of one of the controller heads. Failover was seamless each time it happened though, and we were able to keep working with no loss in performance (one of the few advantages of an active/passive array). Support replaced the faulty controller after appropriate testing and troubleshooting, and the problem hasn't recurred.

Yes and no. The SAN chosen was not ideal for the workload found, but growing in breadth, expanding the load across multiple arrays (with and without Group configuration) was very simple and fast, making use of the built-in replication to copy data. It is also easy to expand vertically via upgrading the controllers, though my clients chose not to do it.

Customer service with Nimble has been great every time I've dealt with them. They've always been very responsive and friendly to deal with. I definitely have appreciated the experience of dealing with Nimble Customer Service.

The technical support at Nimble is stellar. The analytics available via the Infosight web portal are extremely detailed, and yet well laid out and easy to peruse. In addition, the portal is regularly upgraded, with additional information, new views, and easier navigation. If the analytics there aren't sufficient, though, technical support is always happy to provide whatever additional help is required, including taking the time to do deep analysis of all settings in the environment (ie, Nimble and VMware settings, or Nimble and Windows settings) to ensure that things are configured optimally.

This particular environment was all standalone servers and storage previously. Decision was made to move to shared storage to support movement from standalone servers to a VMware cluster on Cisco UCS blades.

Initial setup was extremely easy. There was a Windows app for initial configuration to get the SAN configured on the network for management, and then subsequent work (volume creation, snapshot schedules, etc) is all web based and extremely easy.

I implemented these SANs personally, and did not make use of a vendor team.

It's hard to say, since it was a complete change in the datacenter going from

Licensing is dead simple and not a concern on this product, as all features are included. SANs are purposely CPU limited in a particular model, so be aware that even if you have enough flash for all your typical needs, you may hit a hard CPU limit on performance before you run out of flash. Luckily, head upgrades are easy and fully supported, allowing movement up to faster models.

I was not part of the initial hardware selection. My client was working with a VAR to choose and obtain the hardware for a data center refresh. During this process, it eventually worked out that I took over the complete data center refresh project, from design to deployment.

1. CASL makes use of hybrid disks to retrieve frequently used data from a set of flash drives while storing actual data to high capacity SAS drives.
2. Zero Copy Clone saves storage space by updating only changed blocks to the cloned copy.
3. In-line Compression reduces the amount of space taken up by data without impacting performance.
4. Very Efficient Replication – Only replicates changed blocks which eliminates the need for expensive compression/dedup devices such as Riverbed.
5. Instantaneous snapshots provides a backup dataset of an entire server or the volume that can be restored or used to retrieve data or clone another server
6. Encryption – Ability to encrypt the entire SAN or selected volumes to protect data at rest which meets many government requirements and security requirements.
7. Easy setup, GUI interface and command line tools to administer the SAN.
8. InfoSight provides access to call history, historical performance, updates, performance metrics for virtual environment, KB articles, Nimble community, all for free – very valuable site.
9. Excellent Support Technicians – support techs are very knowledgeable and provides quick and efficient solution. They not only know Nimble SAN but are also very knowledgeable about virtual environments/technologies, switches, fiber, databases, applications and other networking devices that are involved in making a cloud technology.
10. Full redundancy makes all the parts hot swappable and expandable.
11. Grouping SANS and moving volumes between the SAN while the data is in active use on the servers – without any downtime.
12. No licensing for individual features – everything is included.

We have a small datacenter with Nimble Storage SANs that replicates to Nimble Storage SAN at our remote Disaster Recovery location. We are able to replicate every two hours and some of the tests we have done shows very good data integrity upon recovery at the DR location. Along with virtual servers and Nimble Storage, DR is much easier now.

Over a year ago, Nimble was available with either iSCSI connectivity or Fiber. Controllers can be upgraded or replaced with either of the connectivity interfaces. But, a combination of iSCSI and Fiber unit will provide flexibility in connecting SAN with existing network switches or fiber switches which can reduce overall cost and help with connecting high IO devices to the fiber interface.

Not at all. It’s been up and running ever since. We have had a few hard drive failures. Support actually calls us to let us know that there is a problem and a replacement part is on the way. It arrives in less than 4 hours. If we unplug a wire or perform maintenance on switches, Nimble support gets all the alerts and they proactively contacts us to see if there are any issues. We also receive a call from our Service Engineer to check on the health of the device and whenever there are any updates to the software.

We have expanded cache on one of the SAN which was very easy to do without any downtime.

9.9999 on a scale of 1-10 (1=worst, 10=best).

We had and EMC SAN in the past which took up a lot of space and required regular maintenance from a service technician including several downtimes.

Initial setup can be done using a Nimble setup client or via the console in about 5 easy steps.

If you are looking for a scalable, easy, performance, expandable SAN which provides all the great features without charging you licensing fees for all these useful features, go with Nimble Storage.

Yes, EMC, NetApp, Simplivity and Violin.

You will be up and running in an hour. Very easy steps to setup and five clicks to setup volumes, replication, etc.

1. Simplified storage administration

A dedicated storage administrator is no longer needed. All of our engineers have attended the one-day training and has the knowledge how to handle the Storage Systems. With our former SAN systems we had to have an external contractor doing part time administration for us due to the complexity. Now we can easily handle the Storage systems ourselves.

2. Very efficient adaptive flash technology

Even without having hundreds of rotating disks like we had in our former SAN system or having to buy an All-flash Storage, we get predictable and low latency numbers for all of our Storage Systems.

3. Simple snapshot management

Managing Snapshots through Volume collections and Protection Plans it’s easy to make sure new volumes get the appropriate replication and snapshot plan applied, which is easy to maintain and change for all volumes. The overview of used storage for snapshots and the ease of use when cloning a snapshot is remarkable compared to legacy Storage products.

4. Central monitoring and health check via the Nimble InfoSight

The InfoSight portal gives us an overall overview of all our Storage Systems and their volumes, snapshots and protection. InfoSight collects data and creates both automatically generated tickets for any problems or risk of problems as well as predictions of storage use based on usage trends. This helps us a lot avoiding anything from volume protection configuration mishaps to prediction on storage outage.

Increased administrative simplicity and predictable performance.

• Improved snapshot overview in array management GUI.
• Possibility to apply centralized policies across multiple systems.

Close to a year. In total we're running about ten systems.

One uptime related firmware bug, which was possible to work around and fixed in a later release.

No, not so far.

We rate the support as very knowledgeable in the product platform.

Yes, the switch was made to gain a less complex design with regards to setup and administration.

The initial setup was very simple and after one day of education all tech staff were comfortable with the platform.

One benefit with the Nimble Storage platform is that is doesn’t contain any software licenses. All functionality comes built-in to the platform.

We compared both traditional vendors as NetApp and HPE, as well as up-comers like Pure Storage, Violin, SolidFire, Microsoft Storage Server and others.

Embrace simplicity – no more in-house deployed admin tools or tricky CLI GUI’s, just a simple and understandable web interface.

Depending on which product platform you are about to replace – you will either just gain a far better and predictable performance or a journey where you will have to leave the comfort of having a multi-protocol NAS into NFS and OR SMB file servers using Nimble block storage in the backend.

Easy to configure and view information of the system's health.

We do not need a dedicated staff member to handle the system we deploy. A regular infrastructure person that attends the Nimble training course will be able to handle the system.

Less manpower overhead to manage the storage.

Scalability, see below.

The company has been using Nimble Storage for three years.

We haven't had any issues.

We're not able to increase space on a small scale, each increase is pretty big.

Good and responsive.

Simple, it can be setup and ready to use within the same business day of delivery.

Pricing is decent.

It depends on your infrastructure specialist, the very technically advanced specialists will prefer something that is not so user friendly. They would prefer more configuration options where only people with the technical know-how will be able to look after the system. Nimble is very easy to work with. Simple technical skilled personnel will be able to handle the system.

• Hybird configuration
• SSD Cache

These features keep the cost per IO and Gig low while giving very good performance. We have multiple database servers on the SAN that require low latency for optimal performance. This configuration allows us to run the database without over allocating memory to them.

Eliminated all IO bottlenecks, reduced from 6 SANs to 1.

Admin interface can be slow.

Two years.

No problems.

No issues scaling.

Support is great, they understand that they can’t live in a bubble. They understand virtualization and other applications.

Yes, Dell EqualLogic. Cost per IO and Gig. Stability.

Very straightforward, up in running and in testing first day.

It is straightforward, no hidden costs.

Yes, Dell, EMC, Hitachi, NetApp, Pure Storage.

If you test it yourself, it is clear how it just beats every other product hands down.

• Data Protection is superb with downstream DR Nimble arrays.
• Confidence in support and not being afraid to keep up to date.

• Simplicity, ease of upgrade of software (no downtime)
• Performance Integration with Commvault
• InfoSight reporting
• Support – World Class
• The Web GUI interface is easy to use and self-explanatory. From the Web GUI you can register the array plugin to vCenter and from within the VMWare Client and the Web Client you have array integration to allow you to Clone Snapshots and present the clone to the ESXi hosts in a couple of mouse clicks. This feature allows VM power users with the appropriate permissions (set in vCenter) to Clone, Snapshot, Expand, delete and even change the Nimble Protection (Snapshot) schedule without needing array logon credentials or needing to go onto the array Web GUI. Commvault recognizes the Nimble arrays through it’s API so we can trigger app consistent snapshots for various products like MS SQL, Oracle, My SQL,Exchange …. The list is expansive. Nimble do provide Exchange and MS SQL out of the box also. There is also a Nimble Connection Manager for VMware (NCM) that automatically set the Path Selection Policy optimized for VMware ESXi/Nimble performance.

• Web GUI should be HTML5.
• Use smaller form factor disk to provide more spindles. Streaming Backup I/O overnight would dent performance if we were a 24*7 business. Most of our workload is 07:30 -18:30.

No.

No, but the SSD cache could do with increasing on some of our system. That’s a financial (Bean Counter) decision.

The best support ever. They will even assist if the problem lies with Hyper-V, VMware and networking. This is why I don’t think you can go wrong with Nimble!

• NetApp, EMC, Dell EqualLogic.
• NetApp relies on lots of disk and was a nightmare to keep up to date. Updating was a major project when it happened.
• NetApp? To complicated and the extras like snap manager for Exchange very expensive. The others? Not much experience of EMC or EqualLogic.

Really simple.Nimble asks you various questions about IP addresses and then you get a pre-installation checklist. If you didn’t have a clue they’d guide you on the phone initially and then do a WebEx session to get you there. Simple.

Competitive. No licensing. Since everything is included.

Tintri

They have All Flash arrays if people are concerned about Hybrid performance.

The support is the major factor in choosing Nimble and the performance has been great in all our Mix Load environments.

Snapshotting and replication.

These features provide a good resilience for business continuity and disaster recovery, by enabling us to effectively store data away from our primary site and giving us the ability to restore data relatively quickly.

Ability to replicate data offsite for DR protection in an easy and automated fashion.

Easier retrieval of snapshotted data and more granular control is desired.

This is in comparison to something like Veeam or MS shadow copy, where restoration of files is easier in their respective proprietary GUIs.

Snapshotting with Nimble can be very granular, but the restoration from a snapshot is not as easy as restoring with other systems.

3 years.

No issues.

No issues.

9/10

Yes, switched for scalability and cost effectiveness of data storage/protection.

Get what you pay for, in-line pricing with other vendors.

Evaluate with Nimble, they are very helpful and able to answer queries about data storage requirements. No hard sell.

InfoSight is such a wonderful tool and given us insight we’ve never had into our storage environment.

The ‘insight’ into our equipment is fantastic. And their support is old-school, which means that they do an awesome job at being proactive.

InfoSight is such a wonderful tool and given us insight we’ve never had into our storage environment.

Being able to forecast growth and analysis at this level is not possible on our NetApp without a significant investment.

We can forecast when we need to invest in additional storage instead of the former, very manual effort.

We have had excellent support experience with their techs and get proactive notifications of issues instead of us having to monitor the solution.

There have been a couple of instances where we discovered previously unreported bugs.

One year.

No problems.

No problems.

Excellent support.

We used NetApp before, Nimble was a better architecture for us and we receive better support than with the NetApp support team

Straighforward setup.

If you have a logo they want, they get very aggressive with pricing to have that marketing collateral.

NetApp.

You will be very impressed – we didn’t know we had a latency issue on our email system until we were in the process of putting it into production. It was great that the Nimble could provide us an instant benefit.